On Chelsea Manning: “you expect the tax payers to cover this?”

Do prisons provide insulin to individuals who suffer from diabetes? Yes. Do prisons provide antidepressants to prisoners suffering from depression? Yes. Do prisons provide chemotherapy to prisoners suffering from cancer? Yes.

By the way, the above treatments can be far more expensive than hormone replacement therapy.

In the United States, yes, we expect that our prisoners are given access to necessary medical care. According to the American Medical Association, hormone therapy (and yes, sexual reassignment surgery) is considered a medically necessary treatment for someone suffering from gender dysphoria.

Case closed. If Chelsea Manning asks for access to estradiol and spironolactone, she is entitled (yes, entitled) to receive that. This is not an issue up for debate.

Chelsea Manning was sentenced to 35 years in confinement, not 35 years of suffering from her gender dysphoria. Her medical care is guaranteed under the 8th amendment to the United States constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment.

So unless you are suggesting that prisoners should be held without medically necessary treatment, unless you believe those with diabetes should be denied insulin and those with cancer should be denied chemotherapy, let Chelsea have the treatment she needs.

Denial of this treatment should be regarded as a violation of her constitutionally protected rights, worthy of outrage.

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Parker Marie Molloy is the founder of Park That Car and works as a freelance writer. She has contributed writing to Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, The Daily Beast, and The Advocate, among other outlets. Follow her on Twitter at @ParkerMolloy.

Nunya: not sure where you’re getting your info but you’re absolutely wrong about that. It’s not a mental condition… That would be like telling an epileptic theirs is a mental condition. They should be able to control their seizures if they just try harder right? It’s a pity you can’t be more compassionate. You epitomize what is wrong with our world. All you want to do is blame others who don’t share your narrow view of how things “should be”… Why are you so afraid of diversity? Are you afraid you’ll be dull by comparison?